Landlocked Chili pumpkin farm grows desperate

11:39 PM,
Oct. 11, 2013

Cheryl Dulaney of North Chili looks for a pumpkin among the many varieties awaiting customers at Ford Farm Market in Chili. A road construction project has diverted virtually all Paul Road traffic away from the farm where Tom Swain and his family sell pumpkins.

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Tom Swain sells tall pumpkins and fat pumpkins, green pumpkins and pumpkins with those little warty bumps all over them. He prides himself on growing a more diverse assortment than anyone else in the area.

But if Paul Road doesn't reopen soon, his farm might turn into a pumpkin of the proverbial variety.

For decades, Ford Farm Market has sold pumpkins and gourds along Paul Road in Chili. But a state Department of Transportation repair project has closed off the Paul Road bridge over Interstate 490 - just a stone's throw west of the farm - and the normally bustling section of the street, one of ...